Global warming tempts many as a noble and stylish offering: the ability to hold a self-righteous contempt and spread pessimism about our future as humans.
Global warming is the most politicized issue on a global scale. It represents the latest assault against capitalism and pressures us to feel guilty about our lifestyles.Science never has been divorced from politics, and it is no coincidence the global warming topic itself is exploited by some parties and touted as a hoax by others.
Current climatologists are unable to predict the weather more than a week in advance, yet somehow these same climatologists presume they can predict the future of our planet by up to 100 years.
What can we tell from the media coverage on global warming? Global warming is not new. Since 1895, the media has alternated between global cooling and warming scares during four separate time periods. From 1895 until the 1930s, the media warned us of a coming ice age. From the late 1920s until the 1960s, they incited fear of global warming. From the 1950s until the 1970s, they warned us again about an ice age. Modern global warming is the fourth attempt to promote devastating climate change.
Global warming, in its current form, was introduced in 1988 as a theory by James Hansen, Ph.D, who currently heads NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City.
Does carbon dioxide drive the global temperature? No. CO2 is a naturally occurring gas necessary for life. I mention CO2 is necessary for life because it helps provide the Earth's greenhouse effect. Exactly 95 percent of all greenhouse gases come from water vapor; 4.72 percent come from volcanoes, decaying plants, animal activity and oceanic-biological activity.
Humans account for .28 percent of the greenhouse gases. You are responsible for one-quarter of 1 percent of the greenhouse effect, which is a good thing, something that is necessary for life. Consider the Earth is more than 4.53 billions years old; CO2 is not new to the Earth. The Earth's average temperature has risen a little less than 1 degree Celsius during the past century.
Although almost half of this warming occurred before 1940, greenhouse gas emissions began to rise substantially only after the 1950s. During the past 400,000 years, there have been a series of ice ages lasting 100,000 years. These periods consistently are followed by warm periods lasting about 10,000 years. Historically, we are currently at the tail end of a warm period.
OK, so if driving my sport utility vehicle doesn't cause global warming, what does? We know very little about the factors that contribute to global warming and cooling. The following factors all affect our planet's temperature: solar irradiance, linear contrails, aerosol cloud and direct effect, black carbon on snow and stratospheric water vapor from methane. You don't often hear about these. Think about why.
Do scientists agree humans are responsible for global warming? Absolutely not: 56 percent of scientists believe we affect the climate, 30 percent do not and 14 percent have no opinion, according to the National Center for Policy Analysis. This is not science; science is not a consensus.
I still do not believe you; polar bears are dying, and we are all going to die from hurricanes and coastal floods. It's a good myth and a great way to convince people to join the church of global warming, however you haven't looked at the science.
In the 1950s, the polar bear population was 5,000, today it is more than 25,000. Of the 14 distinct polar bear species, 12 are thriving. Sea levels have risen since the Earth came out of the last ice age; 17,000 years ago, sea levels rose four-sixteenths of an inch annually, 14,000 years ago eight-sixteenths of an inch, 9,000 years ago four-sixteenths of an inch and 7,500 years ago to preset: our sea levels are rising at one-sixteenth of an inch annually, far lower than the historic average.
Concerning hurricanes, neither the strength nor the frequency has increased. To the degree temperature makes any difference, historical record indicates a warmer climate results in weaker hurricanes, while cooler temperatures produce more powerful storms. Dying because of global warming should be the least of your worries.
In the 1920s, there were more than 485,000 deaths to weather-related events, in the 1950s 211,000, in the 1980s 66,000, and from the years 2000 to 2004, 19,000 deaths. See the trend?
There is literally a wealth of information on global warming, and I do not have the column space to discuss it all. The theory of global warming is what it is: a theory. Not even a scientific theory; it is an idea that humans are destroying humanity and the planet, which can only be curbed by an assault on our lifestyles.
While global warming may not be supported by science, it should not be confused with pollution. Efforts to improve our world as a whole through cleaner emissions, safe business operations and transportation should be recognized as healthy for the human environment. Both humans and the environment can live together in harmony.
We obviously should not go out of our way to damage the Earth, but neither should we buy into the hysteria and doomsday currently represented by global warming.
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